Swift and a crisply safari-suited Hawkgirl zoom into central Africa, where the elephants have been vanishing. Superspeed reading of every newspaper on the way (the one major advantage newspaper has over TV/radio/Internet is that you can't absorb those media at x1000 speed like you can with print. And the paper doesn't even ignite until around x4510 speed!) shows that rhinos, monkeys, zebras, and flamingos have also been vanishing. And another section of the newspapers, never correlated until someone read ALL the papers RIGHT NOW, shows a baffling absence of pigeons, rats and even insects in the city of Kigali.
Hawkgirl's portable absorbascon can read the surface thoughts of every African for clues, although that level of broad monitoring tends to leave the user a little addled for a while. But it's a possibility.
Anyway, the side of a mountain along the Great Rift Valley is now covered with every color in the rainbow, as the normal lush green is supplemented by a cornucopia of flowers and fruits. From here, it looks like someone spilled all the Easter baskets in the world down a green slope.
In fact, right as you watch, red and yellow flowers bloom with incredible speed down the valley of the Zaire, propagating at forty miles an hour! Every inch of soil is bursting into floral, fragrant, radiant flower.
And fleeing, not away from the botanical avalanche, but towards it, is a mixed-species stampede of giraffes, lions, tapir, domestic dogs, and even the odd gorilla.
The very odd gorilla. The one with the shiny gold helmet and the nine-barreled shotgun.
Friday, April 28, 2017
The Opal Under Seige
The Batplane or Martian saucer (or both; it may matter, but not yet) cruises over the crescent-shaped metropolis of Opal City, gleaming by the edge of the black, glassy bay.
No plumes of smoke, no sirens, no flames -- looks okay from here!
A man flies by at supersonic speed, propelled by a golden quarterstaff with a complex metal top. This is STARMAN (Jack Knight), seventh to bear the name, the son of Starman (Ted Knight) and a sometime member of the Justice Society, although the last time you saw him was the Christmas party.
His golden streak arrows into a dense neighborhood of shops and apartments, with offsets, overhangs, buildings that take right angles halfway up, and other charming architectural oddities. It is almost impossible to see what's happening at street level, as many streets are overshadowed by balconies or bridges.
But Starman zooms in there, and soon red and green energy-sparks are shooting out in all directions. THOSE start a couple of fires.
(Probably don't have to mention that those of Martian descent lose their powers around fire, and by that I mean within sight or smell of fire. It's bad fortune, in Chinese terms. From this distance, the Monkey King feels his shapeshifting powers ebb just a little, but it's a taste. If he were surrounded by roaring flames, he'd lose all his Martian powers, though retaining all his Chinese powers.)
(No, I don't know what constitutes Chinese powers. Look it up.)
The boys can fly around and get an overall view, rush to help Starman, rush to put out the fires, or something else. Or some combination of things -- there are three of you.
No plumes of smoke, no sirens, no flames -- looks okay from here!
A man flies by at supersonic speed, propelled by a golden quarterstaff with a complex metal top. This is STARMAN (Jack Knight), seventh to bear the name, the son of Starman (Ted Knight) and a sometime member of the Justice Society, although the last time you saw him was the Christmas party.
His golden streak arrows into a dense neighborhood of shops and apartments, with offsets, overhangs, buildings that take right angles halfway up, and other charming architectural oddities. It is almost impossible to see what's happening at street level, as many streets are overshadowed by balconies or bridges.
But Starman zooms in there, and soon red and green energy-sparks are shooting out in all directions. THOSE start a couple of fires.
(Probably don't have to mention that those of Martian descent lose their powers around fire, and by that I mean within sight or smell of fire. It's bad fortune, in Chinese terms. From this distance, the Monkey King feels his shapeshifting powers ebb just a little, but it's a taste. If he were surrounded by roaring flames, he'd lose all his Martian powers, though retaining all his Chinese powers.)
(No, I don't know what constitutes Chinese powers. Look it up.)
The boys can fly around and get an overall view, rush to help Starman, rush to put out the fires, or something else. Or some combination of things -- there are three of you.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Resolved: That the Team Split Up
In keeping with the discussion, the boys are headed to Opal City, while the girls are going to Africa. The girls can run there (Swift pulling Hawkgirl on a string like a kite) or take the Arrowplane, which Hawkgirl can fly very well and Swift adequately.
The boys, I think, have only the Martian saucer and Batplane options, if they're lending the Arrowplane to the girls.
Unless anyone objects, we'll assume they split up thus, and commence with the local situation in the next series of posts.
The boys, I think, have only the Martian saucer and Batplane options, if they're lending the Arrowplane to the girls.
Unless anyone objects, we'll assume they split up thus, and commence with the local situation in the next series of posts.
Friday, April 21, 2017
Opening Discussion: World Crises
Members not present at this meeting include Great-Man, the Terror, Starman, and Mr. Terrific. Great-Man is a clone of Superman, the Terror is a scary sleuth and scientist, Starman is the son of Starman with a gravity rod, and Mr. Terrific has no super-powers but is a master of all skills. Yes, including archery.
GREEN ARROW:
Conner Hawke opens the meeting with two minutes of meditation and zen calisthenics.
Once everyone is seated around the big (or small) JSA table, Green Arrow uses his gavel arrow to bring the meeting to order, and reads the new and old business items on the agenda.
"Of old business, item one: is there anything to discuss about the climate re-stabilizing itself? Is there anything the Justice Society can or ought to do regarding the missed growing season?
"Item two: Lexcorp harvesting the antimatter should be investigated to see what evil scheme the President of the United States has in mind for this material. This might be a stealth or espionage mission, purely fishing for evidence of a crime we have no reason to suspect is going down.
"Item three: The failure of the Zeta Beam tubes of course hampers our ability to respond actively and flexibly to worldwide threats. However, I live at an Ashram, free of all material desires and worldly goods, and therefore have no idea how even to start looking into a solution for this one. At the moment, we have the Arrowplane, the Martian Manhunter's saucer, and maybe the Batplane. The chair will entertain a motion to assign a subcommittee of the whole to discuss the possibility of flying to a friendly alien planet that sells used spaceships and buying two or three more from a used UFO salesman, to flesh out the JSA ability to project force globally. Does anyone know if the planet Rann, or the planet Oa might have used aerospace vessels for sale? Also, I am hoping to borrow a spaceship on the weekend, to see if I can get a date with the Bee Queen Zazzala the hiveworld Korll. (Reference photo: http://www.scifiwright.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Queen-Bee.jpg)
"Item four: aliens steeling candy is a Silver Age type crime my mother, Moon-day, warned me about. This is a mission that may rely on speed or maneuverability rather than super-strength or monkey-strength, depending on the numbers and strength of the alien robots. Also, it is not clear from the report why the robots are thought to be designed by an alien rather than by a young super-scientist child with a sweet-tooth.
"Item five: disappearing elephants. Also an investigation mission, until we discover who are what is behind it. It could be anyone from time-travelling zookeepers from the far future years after the Great Disaster of the 40th Century, when Elephant Men rule the Earth, to the Apes of Ape City, poaching elephant for their own super scientific purposes, to elephant-nappers from Skartaris at the Earth's core. Or people could be doing this. Earth people. Consequently, this mission requires a certain degree of delicacy, knowledge of jungle survival, and quickwittedness. Also an ability to pick up an carry elephants might be useful.
"None of these investigations seems to me that it will require the whole team at once. Therefore the chair will entertain two motions: First, do we split up? Go in pairs to investigate each thing? Second, who should be assigned to which?
"The floor is now open for motions and for debate on which missions to do, and who should be sent."
Hawkgirl raises her hand.
Assuming she is recognized (Mom and Dad are real sticklers on rules), she says, "Well, Opal City is Jack Knight's territory. I know he doesn't make many meetings, but he's technically one of us. You'll want to check in with him when you go."
"Also, I would very much like to know if the Sun is in the exact position it was before--and if not, what that means long term..."
"Oh! and are the little alien sweet-snatchers actually harming anyone--or is it a property crime?"
Monkey king:
"Present... I'm sorry, what happened to the sun?
And is there anything I can do about it? or is Great Man moving the sun not all that bad? How did he move the sun anyway? is it not a plasma? I do not get any of this."
Hawkgirl:
"If it's off by a few degrees, it could have long-term consequences for Earth. Certainly, sea levels have risen and fallen a lot through the years. But those changes were gradual things. Mostly. Aside from 'The Little Ice Age' and 'the Year without a Summer,' but that last one was caused by a volcano, and at least we got Frankenstein out of it," chatters Hawkgirl breezily, further muddying the waters.
(Monkey King was not in the JSA during the adventure of Earth Two, but everyone on Earth knows that Great-Man moved the Sun by flying into it, preventing a collision between Earth and the antimatter Earth-2. Then he put it back.
TV news theorizes Great-Man's bioelectric field is so supercharged that he repelled the Sun's electrically-charged core. So although he spread his arms and dug into the thick swirling plasma of the core, he could have done just as well folding his arms, or turning his back and taking a nap. But that would be a boring panel.)
Monkey King:
"I do not have Monkey strength, I have God Strength. and I am pretty fast.I think I can handle the Candy case. Might need help thou."
The Shade:
An icy voice comes out of the darkness. "There is no need for speed in this case, What we must do is set a trap for the thieves. We should get together a horde of candy that they would want to steal, then once they come to steal it, we jump them. If we do that we could capture them with ease. If we did need speed, swift would be the best chose.
Swift:
Hmm. We definitely need scientists. Anyone know any? I'll encourage some of my children to become scientists, but that is only a long term fix.
How about these elephants? Poachers? Or...something more devious?
The tally, then, is:
MISSING ELEPHANTS: Swift expressed curiosity.
CANDY ROBOTS: Monkey King and the Shade have ideas.
ANTIMATTER CLOUD: No interest in immediate action.
SUN POSITION: No one thinks we need to rush right out into the Sun.
TELEPORT TUBES: No one has said they have a spare ship to lend Green Arrow this weekend.
GREEN ARROW:
Conner Hawke opens the meeting with two minutes of meditation and zen calisthenics.
Once everyone is seated around the big (or small) JSA table, Green Arrow uses his gavel arrow to bring the meeting to order, and reads the new and old business items on the agenda.
"Of old business, item one: is there anything to discuss about the climate re-stabilizing itself? Is there anything the Justice Society can or ought to do regarding the missed growing season?
"Item two: Lexcorp harvesting the antimatter should be investigated to see what evil scheme the President of the United States has in mind for this material. This might be a stealth or espionage mission, purely fishing for evidence of a crime we have no reason to suspect is going down.
"Item three: The failure of the Zeta Beam tubes of course hampers our ability to respond actively and flexibly to worldwide threats. However, I live at an Ashram, free of all material desires and worldly goods, and therefore have no idea how even to start looking into a solution for this one. At the moment, we have the Arrowplane, the Martian Manhunter's saucer, and maybe the Batplane. The chair will entertain a motion to assign a subcommittee of the whole to discuss the possibility of flying to a friendly alien planet that sells used spaceships and buying two or three more from a used UFO salesman, to flesh out the JSA ability to project force globally. Does anyone know if the planet Rann, or the planet Oa might have used aerospace vessels for sale? Also, I am hoping to borrow a spaceship on the weekend, to see if I can get a date with the Bee Queen Zazzala the hiveworld Korll. (Reference photo: http://www.scifiwright.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Queen-Bee.jpg)
"Item four: aliens steeling candy is a Silver Age type crime my mother, Moon-day, warned me about. This is a mission that may rely on speed or maneuverability rather than super-strength or monkey-strength, depending on the numbers and strength of the alien robots. Also, it is not clear from the report why the robots are thought to be designed by an alien rather than by a young super-scientist child with a sweet-tooth.
"Item five: disappearing elephants. Also an investigation mission, until we discover who are what is behind it. It could be anyone from time-travelling zookeepers from the far future years after the Great Disaster of the 40th Century, when Elephant Men rule the Earth, to the Apes of Ape City, poaching elephant for their own super scientific purposes, to elephant-nappers from Skartaris at the Earth's core. Or people could be doing this. Earth people. Consequently, this mission requires a certain degree of delicacy, knowledge of jungle survival, and quickwittedness. Also an ability to pick up an carry elephants might be useful.
"None of these investigations seems to me that it will require the whole team at once. Therefore the chair will entertain two motions: First, do we split up? Go in pairs to investigate each thing? Second, who should be assigned to which?
"The floor is now open for motions and for debate on which missions to do, and who should be sent."
Hawkgirl raises her hand.
Assuming she is recognized (Mom and Dad are real sticklers on rules), she says, "Well, Opal City is Jack Knight's territory. I know he doesn't make many meetings, but he's technically one of us. You'll want to check in with him when you go."
"Also, I would very much like to know if the Sun is in the exact position it was before--and if not, what that means long term..."
"Oh! and are the little alien sweet-snatchers actually harming anyone--or is it a property crime?"
Monkey king:
"Present... I'm sorry, what happened to the sun?
And is there anything I can do about it? or is Great Man moving the sun not all that bad? How did he move the sun anyway? is it not a plasma? I do not get any of this."
Hawkgirl:
"If it's off by a few degrees, it could have long-term consequences for Earth. Certainly, sea levels have risen and fallen a lot through the years. But those changes were gradual things. Mostly. Aside from 'The Little Ice Age' and 'the Year without a Summer,' but that last one was caused by a volcano, and at least we got Frankenstein out of it," chatters Hawkgirl breezily, further muddying the waters.
(Monkey King was not in the JSA during the adventure of Earth Two, but everyone on Earth knows that Great-Man moved the Sun by flying into it, preventing a collision between Earth and the antimatter Earth-2. Then he put it back.
TV news theorizes Great-Man's bioelectric field is so supercharged that he repelled the Sun's electrically-charged core. So although he spread his arms and dug into the thick swirling plasma of the core, he could have done just as well folding his arms, or turning his back and taking a nap. But that would be a boring panel.)
Monkey King:
"I do not have Monkey strength, I have God Strength. and I am pretty fast.I think I can handle the Candy case. Might need help thou."
The Shade:
An icy voice comes out of the darkness. "There is no need for speed in this case, What we must do is set a trap for the thieves. We should get together a horde of candy that they would want to steal, then once they come to steal it, we jump them. If we do that we could capture them with ease. If we did need speed, swift would be the best chose.
Swift:
Hmm. We definitely need scientists. Anyone know any? I'll encourage some of my children to become scientists, but that is only a long term fix.
How about these elephants? Poachers? Or...something more devious?
The tally, then, is:
MISSING ELEPHANTS: Swift expressed curiosity.
CANDY ROBOTS: Monkey King and the Shade have ideas.
ANTIMATTER CLOUD: No interest in immediate action.
SUN POSITION: No one thinks we need to rush right out into the Sun.
TELEPORT TUBES: No one has said they have a spare ship to lend Green Arrow this weekend.
Sunday, April 16, 2017
April Meeting of the Justice Society
April Meeting Minutes
Roll Call:
Hawkgirl
Green Arrow
Monkey King
the Shade
Swift
Green Arrow in the rotating chairman slot this month.
OLD BUSINESS: Antimatter cloud left behind by collapse of the Evil Antimatter Earth is reduced in scale, being systematically harvested by Lexcorp.
World climate has re-stabilized after the missed growing season caused by Great-Man moving the Sun. Wayne Enterprises and Cordtech have patented new sea-growing crops.
Intercity teleport tubes are still off-line, the current JSA lineup containing no scientists. Yes, Batman's a scientist, but his son isn't.
NEW BUSINESS: Hawkman and Hawkwoman are back on Thanagar, which is having a coup or civil war. This means their spaceship is out of reach.
We still have the Martian Manhunter's flying saucer available, the Arrowplane, and whatever Bat-gadgets The Shade has access to.
Elephants vanishing from central Africa. Where are they going?
Little mechanical aliens are running around Opal City. They are bald with one eye and long whiplike fingers, and they steal candy.
Roll Call:
Hawkgirl
Green Arrow
Monkey King
the Shade
Swift
Green Arrow in the rotating chairman slot this month.
OLD BUSINESS: Antimatter cloud left behind by collapse of the Evil Antimatter Earth is reduced in scale, being systematically harvested by Lexcorp.
World climate has re-stabilized after the missed growing season caused by Great-Man moving the Sun. Wayne Enterprises and Cordtech have patented new sea-growing crops.
Intercity teleport tubes are still off-line, the current JSA lineup containing no scientists. Yes, Batman's a scientist, but his son isn't.
NEW BUSINESS: Hawkman and Hawkwoman are back on Thanagar, which is having a coup or civil war. This means their spaceship is out of reach.
We still have the Martian Manhunter's flying saucer available, the Arrowplane, and whatever Bat-gadgets The Shade has access to.
Elephants vanishing from central Africa. Where are they going?
Little mechanical aliens are running around Opal City. They are bald with one eye and long whiplike fingers, and they steal candy.
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